Stephaniehttps://frostbitsky.wordpress.com
Want to photograph you with my mind, to feel how I feel now all the time.
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 12:07:40 +0000 en
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1 http://wordpress.com/https://s0.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngStephaniehttps://frostbitsky.wordpress.com
ABC Book Challenge ✰ Thttps://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/02/22/abc-book-challenge-%e2%9c%b0-t/
https://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/02/22/abc-book-challenge-%e2%9c%b0-t/#respondFri, 22 Feb 2019 12:00:00 +0000http://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/?p=2185Continuing this challenge I saw at these blogs: Purple Manatees, and The Bibliophagist.

It’s great to have this story in TV series format because we see the inner workings of the Congregation – the politics, the threats, and the archives. I love archives. When Satu arrives she is wearing much nicer clothes. Dressing the part.

More world building, we are introduced to more Daemons. I smiled when “Demons” by Imagine Dragons played as they introduced Sophie and Nat. And it wasn’t a cover! I love, love, love Sophie in the book and seeing her story with Nat and Agatha told was one of my favorite things about the series. In the book Sophie and Nat just show up out of nowhere, but here you see their journey and how they make their way to Madison.

Also, they are such a cute family but also you see the sadder side too. Daemons feel so alienated. Breaks my heart.

Again Diana gets no work done at the Bod. But at least she gets to go to a library. I liked scene at Matthew’s house in Woodstock when Diana is admiring his books and then he tests her by almost spilling wine on them. It was funny but also I felt like Diana, like “WTF are you doing?!” But it brings up the plot point about her magic being tied to need.

Having Louisa’s painting was a nice little nod and there is the foreshadowing of talking about Philippe and that vampires can be killed. That is for when Juliette almost kills Matthew and she dies.

Although Matthew Goode was not my first choice he is playing Matthew Clairmont so well. He has the right mixture of dangerous, haunted and sensual.

His chemistry with Teresa Palmer is really strong. I don’t mind they cut out the yoga scene and am glad they did their dinner date scene so well. They kept the “what I would taste like” question and the aftermath was chilling.

The little Easter Egg about Queen Elizabeth I’s teeth was a nice touch.

I really liked Marcus in this episode. He is so charming when he takes Diana food shopping for her date with Matthew. He’s just adorable.

When Matthew is taking Diana’s blood in the lab, who growls? Was it Matthew, Marcus or Miriam? The closed caption didn’t say who it was.

The actress playing Miriam, Aiysha Hart, is really gorgeous and I like her fierceness.

Going back to adorable people, I love that we get to see Sarah and Em’s POV. Their chemistry is so cute and natural. I love their concern for Diana, even when Sarah gets angry. I want them to be my aunts and teach me magic.

Gerbert is being a creepy abuser again. I had forgotten about the oracle head he keeps and the prophecy. I guess because we only hear about the head and never see it in the books. And I can’t remember when the prophecy about the lion and the wolf is brought up.

Juliette getting a bath from Gerbert is just wrong. Her life is just sad.

The confrontation in the Bodleian. They changed the fact that Sean remembers Diana calling Ashmole 782, but I guess it is too much to explain that magic made him forget that so they just omitted that. But poor Sean getting mind abused by Peter Knox! Pure evil.

I love how the episode ends with a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way.”
Nice little foreshadow to BOL. I wonder if for the third season they will have the Bishop house playing the actual band’ music (if they can get those expensive rights) or just mention it?

Same time, same place next week for Episode 4.

]]>https://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/02/20/witchy-wednesdays-a-discovery-of-witches-episode-3-review/feed/0frostbitskyadow-new-lead-1537535363tbolTop Ten Tuesday February 19: Books I LOVED with Fewer than 2,000 Ratings on Goodreadshttps://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/02/19/top-ten-tuesday-february-19-books-i-loved-with-fewer-than-2000-ratings-on-goodreads/
https://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/02/19/top-ten-tuesday-february-19-books-i-loved-with-fewer-than-2000-ratings-on-goodreads/#respondTue, 19 Feb 2019 12:00:18 +0000http://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/?p=2160Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

I actually did this topic 2.5 years ago as a guest on my friend’s blog. It was nice to see Never Broken by Jewel has climbed from 1,390 to 3,035 ratings! Anna and the Swallow Man jumped from 1,754 to 5,502.

What exciting news we got this week! Starting Sunday, April 7 at 9pm ET/PT A Discovery of Witches will air on AMC and BBCAmerica! I’ll be watching again.

This week I am reviewing Episode 2. As always there are spoilers for the book trilogy and the TV series.

The episode opens in Venice! So beautiful. We see the point of view of Juliette and her deadly, unhealthy obsession with Matthew. But I also really feel bad for her. The emotional and physical abuse she endures at Gerbert’s hand is sickening. And because he is her sire she calls him “father” which is really even more disturbing.

I realized calling him father sort of has a double meaning because Gerbert was Pope Sylvester II. Domenico kisses his hand like people kiss the Pope’s hand.

Hamish is introduced this episode. I cracked up at Matthew’s joke when he said his newly decorated home looks like a wedding cake. I like that they kept the little things like their chess game, creature politics, and Hamish’s warning about the warmbloods Matthew has killed (Eleanor and Cecila).

The Bodleian is filling up with creature. Could the man with the red cowboy boots have been Timothy? Poor Diana can’t get any work done with all these interruptions.

I like the ways Diana stood up to Peter Knox when she told him she wanted no part of vampire genocide and then when she breaks the window at the party. Owen Teale is good as Peter Knox. You really just want to punch him in the face and tell him to F-off.

With the threats of Peter Knox Diana is becoming more trusting of Matthew. I like how they kept a little bit of the conversation from the book about Matthew looking for Ashmole 782 since Darwin’s Origins and how he’s so old he knew Machiavelli and the line, “Which fall of Carthage?”

I also love the little moment in the lab when Marcus smells Diana and says she is AB-. There is not as much detail about the biology, genealogy, and Diana’s DNA results in the series as in the book, but I am not surprised. There was a lot and I mean A LOT of information about all that. I think they kept most of what was necessary.

Desire and Fear – they also sort of kept when Diana and Matthew talk about that though they didn’t mention that it was the topic of his paper when he applied to All Souls College.

When Matthew kisses Diana’s wrist at the end that was very sensual.

That’s about all I have for Episode 2 for now. See you next week for Episode 3.

]]>https://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/02/13/witchy-wednesdays-a-discovery-of-witches-episode-2-review/feed/0frostbitskyadow-new-lead-1537535363tbolABC Book Challenge ✰ Q and Rhttps://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/02/08/abc-book-challenge-%e2%9c%b0-q-and-r/
https://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/02/08/abc-book-challenge-%e2%9c%b0-q-and-r/#respondFri, 08 Feb 2019 12:00:22 +0000http://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/?p=2168Continuing this challenge I saw at these blogs: Purple Manatees, and The Bibliophagist.

✰ Memorable books starting with Q ✰

I have never read a book staring with Q. Well, at least not any memorable ones or any since I started keeping a record 12 years ago.

I signed up for a 30 day free trial of Sundance Now to watch A Discovery of Witches. I have already seen and loved all 8 episodes and am now re-watching them with a closer eye and ear to write up reviews.

Overall I feel that making the book(s) into a TV series was smarter and more beneficial to the story than a two hour movie(s). It kept the tone and much of the core story intact. With only 8 episodes some details and favorite scenes were omitted to fit other important details and to expand the story outside of Diana’s first person POV. I read a rumor that the next season for book two is getting more episodes, which is great because it has some much more going on. I am hoping for 12 episodes, at least!

Realistically the only way you are getting every single favorite detail in is if you turn the books into a daily daytime soap opera. These are the Days of Our Witches. lol

Ok SO, this review has major spoilers for the TV series and the book.

Don’t say I did’t warn you.

I loved seeing the outdoor scenes of Oxford. It makes me want to go back so bad!
The interior sets of Bodleian Library were outstanding! It looks like they filmed in the actual Bodleian.

I like the intro with the opening lines of the book and Matthew’s voice over. It remains the opening for the first 6 episodes.

I like how they kept in Diana’s physical activities, even if they don’t mention why she exercises so much. They also omitted her panic attacks.

Teresa Palmer does a great American accent. I think she did an incredible job playing Diana. She balances her strength and vulnerability really well. It’s also great to see an accomplished woman/character in her 30s, and not in her teens, as the lead.

I liked Deborah’s cameo. It was very appropriate for her to be there listening to a history lecture. I hope she gets her cameo wish for next season as a plump, wealthy, Elizabethan shopper.

I didn’t expect Ashmole 782 to be so small and I thought the page we saw would be more vibrant – but that could just be that magic is disrupted and it’s an old book.

What I did love was hearing the whispers, and seeing the words scroll across Diana’s hands. GREAT foreshadowing there.

Also, for time and for visual storytelling I thought it was smart having the vampires feel it in their blood that the book had been opened.

I loved, loved, loved that we saw the librarian look for Ashmole 782 and it appeared out of nowhere and then when she returned it how the book receded and disappeared! NICE, spooky visual.

I loved the Time-Walking foreshadowing of Diana seeing her dad at the Bod.

While we are on that subject of foreshadowing, Diana’s dreams of the spiderwebs binding her – Deborah has said she wished they were ribbons and I truly was expecting ribbons. But the spiderwebs makes sense because like spiders, Diana is a weaver.

At lot was changed for Marcus and I really don’t mind it. Some fans where upset he’s not blonde and quite frankly I never pictured him as blonde, so whatever. When they said something about it I was like, he’s blonde? I ignored that detail. Unless their hair color is really important to the plot or I saw the movie/series before reading the book and already have that actor in mind, I rarely ever picture characters to be blonde. Nine times out of ten they are brunette.

They also took Marcus out of Matthew’s research lab and made him a doctor in a hospital so that they could show the audience that the vampires are not successfully siring children. It explains why Matthew is desperate to get Ashmole 782. That was good story condensing.

I loved seeing Matthew with Marcus and Miriam. I loved seeing Sarah and Em. Seeing their family dynamics gave me warm fuzzy feelings.

I think the performances and chemistry is great all around the cast, but I do have a slight annoyance with Gillian. I don’t mind so much that she is more Diana’s friend than enemy in the show, but I kind of can’t stand her mousey demeanor and quivering mouth. I feel bad saying it but I have to. She annoys me.

I loved how close to the book the scene with Diana meeting Matthew in the Bod was. Did you notice he smells the book after he picks it up? I love the smell of old books!

The rowing boathouse. It was both creepy and funny. Matthew was right, rowing at night is not safe, and admit it Diana, you’re curious.
Matthew, why smell her jacket when you desire her? You are playing with fire!
But I love how his last words to her come back later in the season.

Miscellaneous thoughts:
When the creatures show up to watch Diana, where are the Daemons? Where is Timothy? He is important later.

Why was the location of Rebecca and Stephen’s murder changed from Africa to Ukraine/Russia?

The scene when Diana is reading while on the queue for the food vendor, the guy behind her cuts her! How rude. Tell her to move up, don’t take her turn. Jerk!

Witchy Wednesday continues next week with Episode 2.

]]>https://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/02/06/witchy-wednesdays-a-discovery-of-witches-episode-1-review/feed/0frostbitskyadow-new-lead-1537535363tbolABC Book Challenge ✰ O and Phttps://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/02/01/abc-book-challenge-%e2%9c%b0-o-and-p/
https://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/02/01/abc-book-challenge-%e2%9c%b0-o-and-p/#respondFri, 01 Feb 2019 12:00:31 +0000http://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/?p=2166Continuing this challenge I saw at these blogs: Purple Manatees, and The Bibliophagist.

]]>https://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/02/01/abc-book-challenge-%e2%9c%b0-o-and-p/feed/0frostbitsky28221006Top Ten Tuesday January 29: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My To-Read Listhttps://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/01/29/top-ten-tuesday-january-29-the-ten-most-recent-additions-to-my-to-read-list/
https://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/2019/01/29/top-ten-tuesday-january-29-the-ten-most-recent-additions-to-my-to-read-list/#respondTue, 29 Jan 2019 12:00:30 +0000http://frostbitsky.wordpress.com/?p=2158Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.